To help you find the best places on my blog, here’s a list with links to the posts they are in.
(2019 note, this post hasn’t been updated for a few years!)
There are plenty more that are damn fine but these are the creme de la creme.
Just click on the names to get there. Remember you can click on the thumbnails too to see the pictures properly.
And please feel free to add your own favourites in the comments section below. Share and share alike!
It’s not just about the food (although it should be very good), but also the attitude of the people and the atmosphere.
In no particular order…
Ribeira do Mino, Chueca, Madrid, Spain.
Galician seafood restaurant with special Mariscadas (seafood banquets). Good mariscos at a reasonable price and a great atmosphere. Have the spectacular Quemada too.
Pizzeria Sorbillo, Naples, Italy.
Greatest of many great pizzerias in the home of the pizza. The pizzas are so big they hang off the sides of the plates.
Osaka, Palermo Hollywood, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
I love sushi and this place fuses it with Peruvian cerviche for a whole new experience.
Nunzia, Benvento, Campania, Italy.
Named after the wonderful old lady who runs the place. Fantastic food served by a great personality.
Trattoria da Nennella, Spanish Quarter, Naples, Italy.
A flavour of working class Naples. It’s about the attitude as much as the grub.
Da Lucia, Trastevere, Rome, Italy.
Back street bliss on the less touristy side of the river. Great on a sleepy Sunday.
Osteria da Mariano, Siracusa, Sicily, Italy.
Just perfect food, served up by a real character.
Cucine Casarecce, Lecce, Puglia, Italy.
Basically a family house with the greatest homemade food. Ring the bell to get in.
Il Padrino, Sicily, Italy.
Again it’s about the attitude as much as what’s on the plate. Great family run place that’s cheap as chips.
Marisqueira Mare Cheia, Aveiro, Portugal.
Great seafood place favoured by all the locals. The best in a beautiful little town.
Er Buchetto, Esquilino, Rome, Italy.
Porchetta sandwich on greaseproof paper in a hole in the wall. That is all.
Casa Pedro, Puente Genil, Andalusia, Spain.
Great place in a tiny town that has it all when it comes to food and wine.
Kebapci Iskender, Bursa, Turkey.
The original home of the Iskender kebab. Order two at a time.
Nisio, in Vigo, Galicia, Spain.
A working man’s seafood bar down a back street by the docks where they’ll be shocked to see you.
Needoos, Whitechapel, England
The best curry house I know in the UK. Didn’t get time to write it up but the address is here.
L’Approdo, Vibo Valentia, Calabria, Italy
An upmarket place where I drank one of the best bottles of wine I’ve ever had, a Ciro Classico. The food is damn good too.
Antico Forno delle Fratelli Attanasio, Piazza Garibaldi, Naples, Italy.
Not a restaurant but a bakery where you can buy hot sfogliatelle straight from the oven.
Mercado Municipal, Downtown, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Any of the cafes on the second floor will sell you a great Mortadella Sanduiche.
Bye Bye Blues, Mondello, Palermo, Italy
A posh Italian place with a Japanese chef and no bad attitude. The tasting menu is great value and all the food is perfect.
Saravana Bhavan, Connaught Place, New Delhi, India
I’m currently working on a post for this place but it must be good if a dedicated carnivore and boozer is writing about a veggie place that has no liquor licence!
The Plough, Hathersage, Derbyshire, England.
I’ve never written it up but it’s my favourite place for Sunday lunch and the first place I head to when I come home.
Writing this list reminds me how much I love Italian food, especially from the south.
I also note that hardly any of these places are that expensive so maybe food tastes better when you’re not paying over the odds for it!
There are other great places I’ve eaten in that are now lost in the mists of time, like a ramen bar in Inage in Chiba, Japan. They had a secret recipe for their soup stock which was what made them so special. Also the staff hit a gong when you ordered the special and the whole place would applaud you.
Due to the colour scheme of pastel purple, legend had it (since debunked) that it was owned by the Aum Shinrikyo cult who were responsible for the gas attacks on the Tokyo subway. People used to joke that the special ingredient of the soup stock was the poison gas sarin. I think this is what might have shut them down in the end which is a real shame.
Also a fugu and sushi restaurant in Tokyo where you could have bought a small house for what the bill came to (thanks rich student).
And an all-you-can-eat churrascaria in Sao Paolo where the menu was a numbered diagram of a cow and they had a traffic light system on the table to tell the waiters if you wanted more or if you’d had enough!
So glad I’m blogging it all now so I won’t forget where I’ve been.
Right, need to eat after writing about that tidy lot…
If you’ve read this far, please take a little time to tell me about your favourite places to eat in the comments section 🙂